Hidden Jealousy
by dx-nodoubt-dx
Summary: Nattie Neidhart's thoughts on her best friend retiring... and the person doing the retirement match with her. One-shot. Kinda random. Not femslash.


Nattie wandered down the hallways, trying her best not to catch anyones eye lest they drag her into conversation. She didn't want to be rude, she was just looking for someone. And she knew she didn't have much time before she would lose her chance to talk to said someone. She glanced at each door as she went along, growing increasingly frustrated when the woman she wanted to talk to never seemed to appear. She saw McCool up ahead, giggling away at something Taker was saying. Nattie tried hard not to spit at her as she passed by. She didn't deserve the honor about to be bestowed upon her. It should be _her_ going down to that ring tonight. Not McWhore.

She finally found the room she was looking for, an empty locker room no bigger than a broom closet. Only the best for a retiring veteran.

"Knock knock." Nattie knocked twice on the door for added effect and her travelling partner looked up, a grin spreading along her face the moment she saw her younger friend. "I thought I might miss you before you go out there."

Nattie had been a little bit disappointed when her usual road buddy had called and told her to go on ahead without her. Apparently she wanted to make her final drive alone and Nattie respected that. Maybe some tears had been shed and she hadn't wanted Nattie to see her so vulnerable. But Nattie was here now and that was all that mattered to the both of them. They'd only been together in a partnership on screen a little less than a year, but they had become such great friends, Nattie didn't know what she'd do without her by her side.

Lisa-Marie Varon watched her young friend closely, seeing there was something she wanted to say. "I have time... if you wanna talk?" She got to her feet and closed the door behind Nattie, pulling her farther into the room. "So spill, what's up?"

Nattie hated how she could be so composed at a time like this. It was so unfair. She was retiring after nine years with the company and they didn't even have the decency to give her fans any warning. She had no idea how Lisa-Marie could be so calm... so _accepting_ of that. And to have McCool... of all the Divas in this damn company... to have _Michelle McCool_ retire her? The next Trish Stratus? Please. Santino Marella had a better chance at being the next Trish Stratus than Michelle did.

"Nattie?" Lisa frowned as her friends eyes glazed over and her mind flew far far away in her desire to rip Michelle McCool apart from limb to limb. "Is everything okay?"

Nattie sighed and blurted out the first thing that came to mind, which was the last thing she had wanted to say. "I should've been the one to do it."

Lisa frowned as Nattie pressed a hand over her mouth, as though that would take back the words that had already been said. "Do what?"

Nattie sighed, knowing she couldn't turn back now. "Retire you! I should be the one to retire you... not.... not _her_!"

Lisa couldn't help but smirk, it had been well documented since Nattie had first arrived in the WWE that her and Michelle hadn't gotten along very well. Lisa had no problems with the young blonde, but the Michelle that had come into the company was different to the Michelle that walked around paraded on the Undertakers arm every week. The girl had let her politicking get to her head, and that was one of the main reasons Lisa was hanging up her boots. Not Michelle alone... just politics in general.

"It's just.. I could give you a great match." Nattie said, a pleading look in her eyes that pulled at Lisa's heart just a little bit. "I could give you the send off you deserve!! McCool does not deserve to be the one ending your career Li-Marie... I can't believe you're just willing to let them do this to you!"

"Do what to me Nattie?" Lisa plonked down on the folding chair heavily. "Retire me? I'm the one choosing to retire myself. It's time for me to move on, I know that now. There's plenty of younger, prettier, more athletic women in this company now... including you," she added. "I've had my time and I'm proud of it... but I need to step aside and give the other girls a chance. I'm cool with it all Nattie, you should be too."  
"What if I'm not cool with it?" Nattie challenged. "What if I don't want you to leave?? What if I don't want to be alone?"

"Alone?" Lisa echoed with a small chuckle. "Nattie, you have friends here. The twins and Maryse are here.... those girls were your friends long before I was... I know this is hard sweetie, trust me, it's much harder for me. I'll miss everyone so much and I'll miss the travelling and the fans and..." Lisa swallowed the lump that had appeared in her throat. "I'll just be sad to leave, but I know it's the right decision and you do too. You just don't want me to leave because you'll have no-one to curl your hair the same way."

Nattie let a small smile tug at the corners of her mouth. Always the same old Lisa, always making jokes and entertaining people. What would she do without her travel companion? She needed Lisa around, more than Lisa would ever know. "Don't go."

Lisa had just been about to get her boots laced up and head on out to the ring. She'd barely caught what Nattie had whispered, but she'd still heard it. Sighing, she turned to the young redhead. "I need to sweetie. You know it's for the best."

"But I'll miss you." Again, so quiet she almost didn't hear it. She felt her heart breaking slightly as she took the young Canadian in. There were tears in her eyes and she was biting her lip hard to try and prevent them from falling. She got to her feet with a groan and limped towards the younger woman. Her knee was in bad shape, that more than anything had convinced her now was the right time to bow out. "Nattie, do you honestly think the moment I walk out those doors I'm never gonna see you again?"

Nattie didn't answer.

Lisa sighed. "Nat, I love you." Nat glanced at her with a smirk and she laughed out loud. "Not like that nimrod." She shoved her slightly and Nattie shoved back, and the air around them began to lighten up a little as they fell back into their usual banter. "I'm leaving wrestling... not the world. I'll see you all the time and I'll call you. Then we have e-mail and texting and web-cam and letters and-"

"Okay, okay I get it." Nattie rolled her eyes as Lisa chuckled, going back to lacing up her boots. "I just... I want it to be me."

Lisa sighed, refusing to look up at her, lest she see the tears in _her_ eyes. "Yeah... me too."

Once her boots were laced and she'd rechecked her appearance in the mirror, it was finally time. Lisa-Marie hesitated before opening the door, her hand hovering above the door handle. Seemingly having second thoughts, she turned back to Nattie and pulled her in for a hug which lasted well over a minute. When they finally pulled away, both women were sniffling through their tears. "I better go."

Nattie nodded, but didn't let go of her hand. "Yeah."

After a few moments Lisa let out a low chuckle. "We're acting like someone's dying... I dunno why I'm so sad... I need this... I want this."

"You deserve better than this." Nattie whispered softly.

Lisa sighed. "Promise me one thing kiddo."

Nattie smiled at the old nickname. "Anything."

Lisa's eyes grew serious as she regarded the woman in front of her. "I want you to become huge. Bigger than Trish, bigger than Lita, bigger than Mickie. I want you to get that strap a million times over and I want you to just have fun no matter what. Kick ass and do it for me but most of all do it for yourself. You hear me?"

Nattie nodded, no longer bothering to try curb the tears that were spilling down her cheeks. "Yes ma'am."

"Good," Lisa turned back and threw the door open, stepping out into the seemingly empty corridor and taking Nattie by the hand she started walking. "Let's go end this."

After the match - which was actually not bad, although Nattie in her biased view credited all of that to Lisa-Marie - Nattie waited dilligentally backstage for her best friend. Everyone who passed sent her looks of sympathy, as if they knew how hard Victoria leaving was to the young woman. She wondered how many of them would have preferred _her_ to have been the one to retire Victoria, rather than Michelle McTaker. She was interrupted by her thoughts however as the woman herself walked through the back, not looking guilty or upset or anything of the sort. It was like she didn't even care that she had just given her last match to the last remaining "Golden Era Diva". Nattie's fist curled up in anger as she turned her attention back to the monitor and watched Lisa-Marie make her speech. In that moment, she had never felt prouder of her friend. The composure and dignity with which she was handling her retirement was something all women in this company should admire. She wasn't getting a big send-off like Trish's - even though she deserved one - and she'd been largely underused in most of her WWE career. But that didn't stop her being humble and thankful as she made one last bow before the WWE fans.

Lisa came limping backstage not long after, her make-up beginning to streak due to her tears. Nattie was the first one she spotted as she hobbled over and pulled her sobbing friend into her embrace.

"Thank you so much." Nattie whispered. "Thank you for everything you've done for me since I started in this company."

And that alone, that one, little sentence, proved that everything Lisa had been through in the past nine years - warts, depushing and all - had all been worth it.

Hopefully, in the future, when Nattie watched her lift the TNA Knockouts Championship above her head... she'd think so too.

_Total random fluff. Just thought I'd do something on these two. It's not meant to be implied as femslash... although I might try one of those next lol. What ya think? Please review :)._


End file.
